During the first few weeks of my residence in this island, I was staying upon an estate a few miles from the capital. Having for some length of time seen nothing but the “sky above and the sea below,” it may be imagined how happy I was once more to tread _terra firma_; and I lost no time in exploring this, to me, new world. In these rambles, I was attended by my servant, a rosy-cheeked English girl, who gave utterance to her surprise at tropical scenes and tropical customs, in like sentences to these: “Lawk, ma’am!” “Well, I never!” “Lawk-a-daisy-me!” One day we wandered far and wide; and after many devious routes, my attention was at last attracted by the appearance of a cluster of trees. I am very fond of these ornaments of the vegetable world; I love to watch the play of the sunbeams upon their leaves—to listen to the melody of the gentle gale, as it whispers among them; and when in this “far, far west,” they greeted my eye with their verdant foliage, I was anxious to make their acquaintance. Upon a nearer approach, I found they formed a complete fringe to a kind of rivulet; they were mangroves, and very beautiful they looked. We walked by the side of them for some distance, and at length came upon the high-road, which crosses the rivulet. Here we fell in with a few larger trees, of a different species; and near to them was a spring of water. A soothing silence reigned around, occasionally broken by the murmuring of the breeze, the buzzing of those pigmies of the feathered race—the humming-birds, or the coo of the ground-doves, those constant frequenters of all sylvan spots. Now and then, the faint hum of human voices broke upon the ear, as the slaves were returning from the cane-fields, it being near the close of the day.